Battle It Out: Minnesota Wild
by DarkElements10
Summary: "Who would have guessed that after two years of being Big Time Rush, we'd be in a legal battle with Arthur Griffin?" BTR enter a hockey tournament with their friends to fill their free time after Griffin sues them. With all of the stress of the possibility of their band ending looming over their heads, they have to win at all costs. BTRxOC Friendship. Kendall-fic. NO SLASH!
1. Prologue

**Battle It Out: Minnesota Wild**

**By: Riley**

**Summary - "Who would have guessed that after two years of being Big Time Rush, we'd be in a legal battle with Arthur Griffin?" What happens when Big Time Rush enter a hockey tournament with their friends to fill their free time? Will they win? -Somewhat sequel to my two-shot _Battle It Out_-  
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**.:Prologue:.**

Kendall sighed as he ran his hands through his hair. He leaned back on the orange couch and tilted his head back so he was staring at the ceiling. It was probably the quietest that he had ever been in apartment 2J. At that moment in time, it was the way that he wanted it. After the news that he and his friends had gotten that morning, he knew that if he said anything out loud or if someone talked to him, he would blow up and tear the apartment apart.

He smirked at the irony.

Kendall let out another sigh and brought his hands over his face. Who knew that his whole world was going to crash down on top of him and his friends just by going to Rocque Records that morning? He shook his head. It wasn't unusual for Arthur Griffin to pop up out of nowhere to harass Gustavo to death; Kendall had to admit that he found a sense of amusement from it. Of all of the times that he had been yelled at by Gustavo, it was fun to watch him get annoyed by someone other than him. It let Gustavo knew what it felt like to be put down all the time.

But that morning…

It was different. Kendal l could tell as soon as he and his friends had arrived at the record company that morning. Logan had taken one look at Gustavo's and Griffin's faces and immediately knew that something was wrong. He tried to tell Kendall, James, and Carlos that something was up, but they didn't listen to them. The other three boys were just excited to know that Gustavo was going to get yelled at. But they were a bit wary about it, knowing that Griffin tended to be a bit weird, and most of the decisions that he had made had directly inconvenienced BTR in some way, shape, or form.

It wasn't until Kendall noticed the intense glare on Gustavo's face that he knew that Logan's fears weren't just silly. There was something definitely wrong. He didn't hear what Gustavo told him at first; it was just too ludicrous to believe. But when he saw the shocked expressions on James's, Logan's, and Carlos's faces, he knew that it was true.

As much as he didn't want to believe it, it was true.

_Who would have guessed that after two years of being Big Time Rush, we'd be in a legal battle with Arthur Griffin?_

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**A/N: **So after seeing how much people like the idea of my two-shot 'Battle It Out' I thought, what would happen if there was a story that completely focused on them playing hockey and walah, there you have it! For those that had seen this on my twitlonger, that was a tentative first chapter, and I changed my idea for it, so, like usual, this story has a prologue first. Of course I started the prologue with Kendall, because he's the one that's the biggest about hockey, so I thought that it fit.

At this point, I'm thinking of putting my characters in it, like I did with the first Battle It Out, so the team can be filled out with substitutes and everything, but Jo, Camille, and Stephanie will appear as well. Not sure about Dak and WayneWayne yet.

I hope you guys enjoy this story.

Cheers,

-Riles


	2. Chapter One

**.:Chapter One:.**

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Kendall didn't get how it all happened. He didn't think that being in a band that he didn't want to join in the first place would make him so nervous…would affect him so emotionally. And it all started with something that he knew would cause a lot of problems as soon as it started; money. He tried everything in his power to make sure that money didn't get in the way of his and his friends' happiness with their new job. But it came back and bit them in the asses anyway.

Even Logan could tell that something was going to happen when they started to get paid. He knew everything that being in Big Time Rush brought; fame, fortune, and greed. He tried to warn the other boys as much as possible about it, after seeing how much they were starting to spend on new phones, new clothes, mp3 players, CDs, and shoes. Instead, Logan was keeping close tabs on his money, only paying for things that he really needed and keeping some sort of a journal to see how much he would spend per week. At the time, Kendall, James, and Carlos had blown him off, saying that he was worrying too much and that they wouldn't get crazy with money. Logan wasn't nicknamed 'the smart one' for nothing

But it wasn't them and their spending habits that they should have worried about; it was Griffin and Gustavo. When the boys first met Arthur Griffin and Gustavo Rocque, saying that they didn't like each other was an understatement. They, and anyone else around them, were almost sure that Gustavo couldn't even stand the sight of Griffin, let alone hear his name. But they never thought that Griffin would go so far as to purposefully withhold the money that they rightfully owned as a sort of punishment towards the band. They knew that he had that kind of power, but they didn't think that Griffin would ever use it. Of course Gustavo found out, of course the paparazzi found out; now Gustavo and Big Time Rush were in a large legal battle with Arthur Griffin, trying to get all of the money that they deserved. But Griffin was right in some cases, he owned the rights to 'Big Time Rush' as he was the CEO of Rocque Records, and he was the one that negotiated the contracts for Rocque Records in the first place. They probably should have read the fine print a bit closer before they had signed the contract. But they were so excited about the prospect of becoming pop stars that they didn't think about it.

So it was partially their fault.

Now because of the fight, and because Griffin somehow still owned Big Time Rush, even after Gustavo had technically bought the rights to them, they couldn't make any more music. Gustavo had almost hit the roof, literally, when he had found out that in his own contract with Griffin, it overrode his buying of Big Time Rush from him. Gustavo immediately took action and decided to counter-sue Griffin, and that's where they were today. With them being in a fight with Griffin, with the media buzzing around them every time they stepped out of the PalmWoods, with their fans sending nasty letters to Griffin every day, and with the world wondering what was going to happen. It was like *Nsync all over again. But what the boys thought was the worst thing about all of it was that they couldn't make any more music until it was all figured out, and it was driving them (especially James) crazy. With no end in sight over the legal battle, none of the boys were sure how long of a break they were going to have and how long it was going to take until they went stir crazy. There was only so many times that you could go to the beach or the mall before you got tired of it, so what else was there to do?

But then Kendall got a phone call that would bring them more drama, but in an environment they could handle.

"So you're telling me that you don't know what to do to keep from being bored?" Riley Jackson-McGuire had snorted, but she sounded sympathetic. She knew what had happened almost as soon as it had happened. She and her siblings, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney were their best friends, co-workers, and rivals in the music industry and were the first ones told about what was going on. But it wouldn't have mattered if BTR told them or not, news like that moved spread fast in the music industry. "Well, what were you guys before you came to LA?"

"Hockey Players," Kendall replied without a moment's hesitation.

"Right, and none of us have you seen you guys play a game or even practice with each other-"Kendall opened his mouth to protest, but Riley beat him to it, as if she could see him at that moment. "At least not seriously." Kendall closed his mouth. "You're either playing it just for fun (or to beat each other up, I can't tell) or just to clear your head. Don't you miss it at all?"

"Of course, but how are we going to actually play? I'm sure the teams that are around here have already filled up and-"

"Obviously you haven't heard about the Round Robin hockey tournament they host each year," Riley interrupted. "It doesn't surprise me, you've always been a little slow on the uptake." Even when they were down in the dumps, she couldn't help but put in a small jab whenever she got the chance. "It's somewhat amateur, but you make your own teams, practice for about a month or so, and then join tournaments and everything. Teams from all over the US compete." She paused for a minute. "Patrick had seen the flier once and we kept it just in case you guys couldn't make it out here."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Kendall said with a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

"First place is a trophy and $5000 cash prize." Riley enticed him.

Kendall paused for a moment. _It would be great to play hockey again, since we haven't in a while. And it usually does clear my head from the problems that I have around here; maybe it can help the other guys as well. _Kendall cleared his throat as he tightened his hand on his cell phone, his heat thudding in his chest. "Can you fax us that flier?"

"Yep."

"Great, thanks."

When Kendall had hung up the phone, he had made his decision. The Big Time Rush boys were going to play hockey again…

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**A/N: **Sorry it's another short chapter; I had it on my computer for a bit and just wanted it to be put up. Plus, I thought that it was fine as s scene in itself. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Also, there are definitely going to be chapters that talk about their battle against Griffin, as well as flashbacks to when they found out what was happening, so don't worry about that one. :D

Next chapter has everyone.

Cheers,

-Riles


	3. Chapter Two

**.:Chapter Two:.**

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"Make it, take it. First to 20. Three-on-Three." James declared, spinning a basketball on his index finger. He motioned to himself, Logan, and Carlos before motioning to Patrick, Noah, and Sydney Jackson-McGuire. He bounced the basketball over to them. "Take it out."

Patrick grabbed the ball and bounced it a few times on the ground a few times as Carlos moved forward and started to cover him. The younger teen boy grinned as Carlos held his arms out and shuffled back and forth, effectively cutting off any chance that Patrick had for a drive towards the net. Their shoes scuffed over the concrete, making light screeching sounds as the six friends ran around the court, passing the ball back and forth.

Big Time Rush, Katie, the DarkElements, and their friends Jo Taylor, Camille Roberts, and Stephanie King were spending the day at the beach. It was the girls' idea, trying to get the guys' mind off of the fact that they were going a bit stir-crazy, not being able to make music. So while the guys were playing basketball, the girls were laying out on the sand, watching the game unfold.

"Can someone rub some sunscreen on my back?" Camille Roberts asked, waving a bottle of sunscreen in the air, from where she was lying down on her back on her towel. "I want to be sure that I get an even tan this time." She lowered her sunglasses from her face and turned to Jo, as she reached out and grabbed onto the bottle. "And pranks that you're thinking of will not be tolerated this time, Josephine."

Jo smiled as she grabbed the bottle and squirted some of the white lotion into her hand. The last time that they had gone to the beach, Jo made sure to have the word 'Loser' tanned onto Camille's stomach from the way that she had placed the sunscreen onto her. It didn't go away for week and Camille then refused to go to the beach or to the pool without wearing some sort of cover up or one piece bathing suit.

"You have to admit, it was actually pretty funny." Rhuben Jackson-McGuire commented as she turned the brim of her hat to the front of her head before leaning back on her arms, watching as her brothers got a basket.

"Please," Stephanie King rolled her eyes behind her own pair of tinted green sunglasses as she turned on her video camera. "You think that anything bad that doesn't happen to you is hysterical. Like the time that I fell down the stairs of the PalmWoods and sprained my ankle."

"The way you fell was funny," Riley commented, pushing her hair behind her ears. "Excuse us for thinking that you looking like a rag doll was hysterical. Besides, I was the one that bandaged up your foot and got you to a doctor quickly, remember?"

"Yes, I remember." Stephanie put her arm around Riley's shoulders and gave her a hug. "Thank you for that."

"You're welcome." Riley replied with a smile and a nod.

Katie smiled as she finished putting on her sunscreen and set the bottle aside, digging through her bag for her phone. She held her hands over her face as the wind started to blow, sending sand her way. She turned and looked over her shoulder, watching as her brother walked along the edge of the water, pausing every now and then to look out into the waves, a pensive look on his face. Katie frowned as she brought her knees up to her chest, resting her arms on her knees as she let out a sigh. She hated seeing her brother like this; so unhappy and not knowing what he wanted to do. He acted the same way for the first few months after their father had left them. She didn't remember much, but she did remember that he acted very strange for a while. He didn't talk much, he always acted moody around their mom, and he didn't want to play with her. But then he did a complete 180 and acted like nothing had gone wrong at all.

Now here he was, spiraling down that road once more. _I hope he can bounce back from it this time. I don't know what I'll do if he gets stuck in that mind-frame again._

"What's up with Kendall?" Jo asked, noticing Katie's stare over her shoulder. "He looks really bad."

"Time out," Logan held his hands together in the 'T' formation and grabbed the basketball before it hit him in the face. Placing the ball against his hip, the boys walked over to their friends. "He's been like this since the new of Griffin broke out." He shrugged. "We've tried talking to him, but it didn't work out."

"You'd figure with the new of the hockey tournament, Kendall would be excited for it." Noah wiped sweat off of his forehead. "Since that was all that he talked about when you guys first got here." He added with a short eye roll.

"What can we say," Carlos wiped his nose. "It was his life." He looked over at Kendall, his eyebrows furrowed together. "We tried talking to him about playing in the tournament, but he hasn't said anything about it. Every time we try to talk to him, he just turns stone cold and refuses to say anything. This music thing really hit him the hardest."

"Well, if you want to be completely technical, it _was_ Kendall that brought you guys out to LA." Sydney commented. "I mean," he turned to James. "No offense James, but he was the one that Gustavo wanted."

"No offense taken at all," James replied through gritted teeth and a forced smile. "I mean, can I help it if Gustavo likes him more?" He let out a short, somewhat crazy laugh as he brought his thumbnail up to his teeth and started to bite it. "If he was happy to bring us here, then that's fine with me."

"Right," Sydney replied, unconvinced. He turned back to the others to continue with his point. "Gustavo wanted Kendall here, but Kendall said that he only wanted to be a hockey player. As you guys pressured him into it," he looked at Carlos, Logan, and James. "He agreed only if you guys came with him. He was the one that said that he didn't want Hollywood to change you guys, he was the only one that didn't get Hollywood Fever, and he was the one that tried so hard for you guys to succeed in the industry even though he didn't want this. Now it's all imploding in his face, so it seems like it was all for nothing."

"Aww, poor Kendall." Jo shook her head, her blonde hair hitting her in the face as she pouted. "I wish there was a way that we could cheer him up."

"Not that I'm aware of," Riley said. "He hardly seemed interested when I faxed him that flier for the hockey tournament." She rolled her dark blue eyes. "You figured the Hockey-Head would have been leaping for joy."

"Hey," Rhuben reached out and lightly nudged her twin on the shoulder. "Don't kick him when he's down."

"If you want him to get out of this funk, you have to wait for him to do it himself," Logan continued, now sounding more like a shrink than a friend. But everyone knew that he was just as worried as they were, if not more. If asked, many people would say that Kendall and Logan got along better and that James ns Carlos got along better and a bunch of fans see it in almost every picture that they had ever taken together.

"Logie, what's your point?" Carlos asked, sounding impatient.

"Wait for him to come to us." Logan said simply.

"Great, why couldn't you just say that?" Patrick grabbed the ball back from Logan and headed back on to the court. "Time in!" He declared before jogging over to the net and taking a shot. He let out a whoop of a cheer as it went in easily, causing the girls to clap and cheer for him.

"Show off." Riley muttered making sure her brother couldn't hear her.

"Tell me about it." Rhuben agreed. She turned to Katie, who was still watching her brother. "Kates, I'm sure that he's ok."

"Hm," Katie shook her head. "You don't know my brother, he acts like everything's alright, but that's only because he doesn't like to talk about his feelings." She rested her chin on her knees once more. "He's always been like that."

"Well, don't look now," Camille held a hand above her brow. "But he's coming this way; I don't think he wants to act like a hermit anymore."

Kendall looked up every now and then as he walked over to his friends. He seemed a bit nervous which was nothing like him. Anyone that knew Kendall Knight would say that he was the most confident person that they knew. He hardly listened to authority and he had a habit of talking back to people, mostly Gustavo, when he didn't believe in something that they were trying to do. But he was a natural born leader, which was what caused him to be the captain of every hockey team that he had been on from Pee-Wees to high school. It was also what caused fans and Gustavo to naturally see him as the leader of BTR. Logan, Carlos, and James didn't mind much, as they always looked up to him for it, and the always knew that something was wrong when he didn't act like a leader.

"So," he said quietly as he walked over to his friends. He turned to Patrick and waved an arm, motioning for him to come over. He didn't' speak until Patrick had closed his circle of friends. Kendall looked over each of them before slowly starting to smile. "Who wants to play in a hockey tournament?" He asked, causing Logan, Carlos, and James to grin before giving each other high-fives.

"Oh no," Jo groaned as she slapped her hands over her face.

"Oh yes," Kendall replied before giving his three best friends high-fives.

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**A/N: **Long chapters start after this one; I just wanted to do a few quick short ones to set up the story and the next chapters aren't going to be as dialogue driven either. (And that goes for all of my stories). I still haven't decided whether or not to make this a Kendall centered fic, but it's slowly starting to lean that way, although I really don't want it to. (Curse you brain, sometimes you should just shut up). What did you guys think? Like I said, my OCs are in it, but it's a friendship based story and not as much for romance. I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	4. Chapter Three

**.:Chapter Three:.**

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_**Flashback**_

It caught them all completely off guard.

Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James had gone to Rocque Records after school like normal. The only thing that they thought was odd about it was the fact that Kelly wasn't taking them, like she usually did. But that didn't deter their happiness, they were starting work on their third CD, talking about the kind of songs and the sound that they wanted to have on it, they hadn't been as excited as that in a long time.

As soon as Logan stepped into Rocque Records off of the streets of LA, he could feel something in the air, there was a lot of tension. He stopped, his hand on the door, letting the air conditioning cooled out into the street. _Is it a good idea to go in here? There's definitely something wrong._

James noticed that Logan had stopped at the door and turned around to face him a confused look on his face. "Any reason why you're doing an impression of a statue, Logan?" He asked his smarter friend.

"You don't feel that?" Logan asked slowly, looking at his friends.

"Feel what?" Kendall replied patiently. He shook his head. "I don't feel anything." He paused. "What am I supposed to be feeling exactly?" He tapped his chin. "Oh, maybe the happiness that we're starting a new CD?" He turned back to Logan. "What's with you, dude?"

"Nothing," Logan replied finally, closing the door behind him. "Never mind." He paused as Carlos moved forward and placed his clammy palm on Logan's forehead. "What are you doing?" He pushed Carlos away from him before rubbing his forehead frantically.

"Every time you think something's wrong with me, you check to see if I have a fever." Carlos explained patiently.

"That's because there _is_ something wrong with you." James joked with a short laugh before bumping fists with Kendall. Carlos pouted. "Come on guys, I'm sure that Gustavo is waiting impatiently for us, and I don't know about you, but I don't want to get yelled at today."

With that, the four boys went to Gustavo's office to see what they were going to be talking about that day. As soon as they entered the office, they knew that something was really wrong. For one thing, Griffin was there, sitting at Gustavo's desk. Everyone knew that in some way, shape, or form, Gustavo was terrified of Griffin and of the power that he held over him as he was the CEO of Rocque Records. Why he was in Gustavo's office that day, they would find out soon, but they knew it must have been big if he was there. They then looked over at Gustavo and Kelly, who looked so mad that they wanted to beat up Griffin at that moment. Gustavo looked like he was holding back all of his emotions as much as he could, but was failing miserably.

Kelly, who always had this calm, cool, and collected air about her, even when all of the guys were doing something completely moronic, seemed like she wanted to fall apart right then and there. Kendall and Logan exchanged glances and Logan shrugged, looking away.

_I knew that we shouldn't have come today. _Logan let out a short sigh through his nose. He looked over at Carlos and James, who were obviously waiting for Kendall to say something. When it came to moments like this, it was usually better for Kendall to start the conversations.

"What's going on?" Kendall asked after a moment.

"Boys, you might want to sit down," Kelly said through gritted teeth, pulling her long dark hair over her shoulders. She glared over at Griffin as she tightened her grip on her notepad. They all exchanged glances before sitting down in the seats that were pulled out for them. "Griffin has something to tell you."

James' eyebrows rose as he turned towards the older man that was sitting at the desk across from him. _Griffin hardly cared about us when it came to our music before, so what does he need to talk to us about now? _He looked over at Carlos, who had his chin in his hands, effectively hiding his mouth. James knew that Carlos was pouting a little, being the sensitive one; he always did that whenever he was upset for someone. He must have been feeling the tension in the room at that moment.

This time, it was hard to miss.

"It has come to m attention that there are many rules in your contract to me and to Rocque Records that you have broken," Griffin said calmly, his legs crossed.

"Wait a minute," Kendall held up a hand before pointing over to Gustavo. "I thought that since Gustavo sold four of his mansions to buy us from you, he basically had a contract with us, and not you."

"Yes," Griffin nodded. "But as I won Gustavo and am the CEO of Rocque Records, while not having a _direct_ contract with you, I still have a contract with you." He crossed his legs the other way. "Now, as I was saying, there have been a few agreements in your contracts that you boys have broken."

"Like what?" Logan asked slowly.

"At this point, that's not important," Griffin waved a hand, causing Logan's frown to deep and worry lines to appear in his forehead. They broke a few rules in their contract and it's not important to know what it was? Something was definitely going on. "What _is_ important is that you know that I have given Gustavo enough time to fix things, and he hasn't."

"That is complete bullshit, Griffin, and you know it!" Gustavo snapped back. He walked over to the older man and slammed his hands down onto the desk, causing Kelly and the boys to jump. They had never seen him this angry before. "You're just here trying to make my life a living hell!"

"And to make money, there's that too." Griffin replied, reaching out and lightly patting Gustavo on the cheek. Gustavo shoved his hands away and took a few steps back, breathing loudly, and his chest was heaving up and down with frustration.

He looked over at the boys and turned away in disgust. Griffin had overstepped his boundaries before. He had tried to kick out Gustavo and Kelly so many times, but they had been able to stay at Rocque Records because of the boys. Now he was going to go over their heads and try and get him out in a completely underhanded way?

It was just sick and wrong.

"Looking over the contract with my lawyers, they had noticed that in the fine print, I still own the name Big Time Rush as well as some of the royalties of their last CD. Now, since I haven't seen any money directly from those royalties and because I still own part of the Big Time Rush name, you're breaking the law every time you use it. And since I _have_ given you warnings about it before, I need to take some legal action." He smirked at Gustavo and Kelly, who looked back at him with glares.

"Boys," Kelly sucked in a slow breath, getting their attention. "Don't worry about what's going to happen. You'll still be able to make music and you'll-"

"Not under the name, Big Time Rush, you won't!" Griffin interrupted, finally standing up, casually straightening his tie as he did so.

"Griffin," Kelly turned to the boys and held up a hand. "Excuse my language," she apologized to them. "But are you fucking kidding me? You've kept quiet this whole time and now you-"

"He hasn't kept quiet," Gustavo interrupted. "He's been talking shit behind our backs and working on this to make _us_ look bad, and to act like he can get anything he wants!"

"EXCUSE ME!" Kendall practically screamed, getting everyone's attention." But could someone, _please _tell us what's going on here? I mean, I think you've left us in the dark, long enough!" He added with massive amounts of attitude as he crossed his arms over his chest and sank lower in his seat.

"In short," Griffin put his harms behind his back as he looked at everyone in the room. "I'm suing you for everything you've got."

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**A/N: **I wanted to do a chapter that showed the conversation between Griffin, Gustavo, and the boys about him suing them, and that's why this chapter is kind of short. But I haven't showed you the whole story about how it got there yet, you'll see that as the story goes on. The next one will be longer to make up for it.

Cheers,

-Riles


	5. Chapter Four

**.:Chapter Four:.**

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"Ok, the way I see it, it'll probably benefit us the best if we kept the team like we did last time," Kendall said as he pushed his full plate of food away from him. "Have me, James, Logan, and Carlos on the ice at all times. Then have the rest of you switch out whenever you get tired." He rested his elbows on the table, putting his chin in his hands. "Maybe I should draw up a practicing schedule."

"I seriously can't be the only one that thinks that this is a _bad _idea," Jo commented, twirling her fork on her hand.

"You're only saying that because you don't like hockey." Carlos reminded her. "Which is, like, the _worst_ insult on the face to the planet to us," He motioned to himself, James, Logan, and Kendall.

"I thought being taunted by figure skaters was the worst insult to hockey players." Camille reminded him.

"That too."

After having finished hanging out at the beach, the large group of friends had gone to a beachside restaurant to have lunch. Their former worry about Kendall had quickly turned into slight annoyance as all that he had talked about since he announced that they were going to be playing hockey again was the kind of strategy that they were going to have to win the tournament. And the tournament didn't even start for another month.

"Do you really think that we stand a chance though?" James asked, looking uncharacteristically concerned, lightly picking at his own plate of seafood. He speared a piece of shrimp and held it towards his mouth. "I mean, these guys have been playing hockey for years, and we basically stopped playing since we got here, five of us don't like the cold and can't skate, one doesn't like hockey, and I'm sure the other two are afraid of being hit."

"There's no problem with being afraid of being hit on the ice," Stephanie defended herself. "I don't want to knock my teeth out."

"The only chance you have of that happening is if you didn't wear your helmet, Steph, don't worry." Rhuben shook her head. She stayed silent for a moment, a thoughtful expression on her face as the salty wind blew her hair across her face. "Just out of curiosity, have you talked to Gustavo about this?"

"Why would that make a difference?" Patrick asked, wrinkling his nose in confusion.

"Well, for two reasons," Riley held up her fingers in the peace sign. "One being that if they don't talk to Gustavo first and get their faces bashed in and they win their case, it would cause a lot of rehabilitation before they can start their band up again." She lowered a finger. "Second being its common courteousy to let him know about it," She shrugged. "You know, since he's the one that bought Big Time Rush from Griffin, he's the one that's defending Big Time Rush with this lawsuit, and he's the one that's putting all of his money on the line.

"Way to make us feel even guiltier than we did before." Logan suddenly looked sick as he rested his arms on the table.

"You're welcome, Logie-Bear," Riley nodded before turning her gaze to Kendall. "So, Eyebrows, what are you going to do?"

Kendall rolled his eyes. "I'll talk to him later." He replied.

* * *

Kendall looked around as he walked into Rocque Records later that day. He didn't think he had ever seen it so quiet or so empty before. Even though nothing had changed; the decorations were all the same, the posters were still up, the his #1 records lined the walls, and the expensive chairs and furniture were still around, there was a eerie…feeling that washed over him as soon as he stepped inside.

Kendall made his way to Gustavo's office, noticing that he hadn't run into anybody on the way and lightly knocked on the closed door.

"I'm busy!" Gustavo shouted back.

"It's me…Kendall," Kendall replied, turning his mouth towards the door.

"I said I'm busy!"

"I just want to talk for a few minutes."

Kendall waited for a few minutes, not sure if Gustavo was going to respond. Finally, he heard shuffling behind the door and the sound of the lock being turned. Kendall hesitantly reached out and grabbed onto the doorknob, pushing it open. He swung the door open and stepped inside, his mouth dropping open when he saw how much Gustavo's office was in disarray.

Papers were strewn everywhere, desk drawers were open, boxes were stacked up in the corner of the room, his bookshelves were all empty, and his desk wasn't in its normal position (of which he and the other boys had been yelled at many times not to move because it was in perfect alignment with his feng-shui to promote calmness). Gustavo was sitting behind his desk, his arms on the desktop, and his forehead resting on his arms. As Kendall closed the door behind him, Gustavo slowly lifted his head. He didn't have his sunglasses on and he looked _terrible_. Dark circles and bags were under his eyes, he looked nothing short of exhausted.

"Sit down, dog." He muttered without any feeling.

Kendall slowly moved over to the empty chair that was across from his desk and folded his hands across his stomach. "Gustavo, are you ok?"

"Do I _look_ ok?" Gustavo shot back, the blank look on his face never changing.

"Well," Kendall hesitated a moment. "You look like you haven't slept in a while."

"That's because I haven't," Gustavo ran his hands over his face. "I've been looking for the contract that you guys have with Griffin, to help our case, but I think he has the only copy of it." He shook his head. "I should have listened to Kelly when she said to photocopy them." He suddenly slammed his fist on the table, causing Kendall to jump. "I've always hated Griffin, but I_ never_ thought that he would stoop so low." He shook his head. "I didn't think he hated me that much."

"But," Kendall licked his lips. "Don't you hate him too?" He quickly continued. "I mean, I know that you guys have had fights before, but there must be something that's happening that Griffin is trying to keep from getting out if he hasn't already said anything."

Gustavo looked Kendall right in the eye. "Don't you know?" he asked. Kendall stayed silent. "I know that Logan has figured it out." He waited a few more minutes and when Kendall didn't say anything. "You boys know that you're not being paid as much as you're supposed to be paid. All of the revenue from concerts and CD sales and the like you should be getting, but you're not getting your fair share. Logan figured it out quickly and came to me about it, and then your mother did. I went to Griffin after that…we've been fighting ever since."

"So now he's trying to keep you quiet by suing you…us." Kendall slowly nodded. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense." But he couldn't wrap his head around it.

Not exactly.

He knew that there was a possibility that when they first went out to LA that they would be screwed over. No, there wasn't a chance, it was almost completely likely, Hollywood had a lot of success, but it also had a lot of scammers and schemers right behind it. Hiding in the shadows. Kendall never thought that it was going to affect him and his friends, he tried not to have negative thoughts about anything at all, but that was one of his main concerns when Gustavo had offered him to go out to LA two years ago. He didn't want to leave the only life that he had ever known, he didn't want to leave his home, he didn't want his friends to be mad at him if they took the chance and failed, but most importantly, he knew what fame could do to people, how it made them greedy and self-centered. How it could change even the most down to earth person.

That's why they had made their pact on the first day at the PalmWoods. Nothing was going to change them, not fame, not fortune, nothing. But they didn't bring into account that someone might want to watch them fail and do everything they could to make it happen.

"It doesn't make sense, that's the problem," Gustavo contradicted the young man. "So I've been looking for any sort of loophole in the contract that I can find and anything that I can to make our case stronger. Kelly has been on the phones all day as well." He let out a loud yawn, somehow looking like a lion as he did so, and rubbed his eyes. "So…what did you want, dog?"

"Uh," Kendall rubbed the back of his neck. "We wanted to tell you that while we have this time off, we're going to be entering a hockey tournament." Gustavo's eyebrows rose. "You remember that charity hockey thing that you entered us in a while ago?" Gustavo slowly nodded. "Well, there's a new round robin kind of tournament that we entered…first place gets $5000 cash prize."

"Great," Gustavo snorted. "That'll probably give you 1/5th of what you each of you are entitled to, and that's not including how much you should get while we're on this little break." He shook his head and busied himself by looking around the room. "Why'd you come here to tell me this?"

"If we win the case, which I'm sure we will," Kendall said firmly. "It wouldn't help much if we got beaten up and then had to take a long break to recuperate before we could go back to making music." He shrugged a little, licking his lips. "Besides, we would want you to come support us at our games." He surprised himself, realizing that what he had said was the truth. Even though Gustavo had pushed them hard and helped them create music in some ways that people would say would be unethical, it really helped them and they would be nowhere without Gustavo.

Even though they had never said it out loud, he hoped that Gustavo knew that.

"No thanks," Gustavo shook his head. "I hate hockey. The only reason I put you boys into that competition last time was so I could rub it into Hawk's face when he lost. I hate Hawk almost as much as I hate Griffin."

"Seems to me that you hate a lot of things." Kendall mused.

"You'd win that bet." Gustavo got up and walked over to a pile of boxes and started to sift through the papers in the top box. "If that was it, you can leave."

"It's not for another three weeks or so, so there's time for you to change your mind," Kendall said as he got up from his chair. "We really hope that you can come to support us." He backed away to the door, watching Gustavo's back. "It would be great, because if we knew that you were there, supporting us, we could win. And then we can go on to win our court case because you have us supporting you there. He cracked his knuckles. "I don't know, I just thought that after everything that we've been through, we were a team." He shrugged again. "But we won't hate you if you don't come."

Kendall left Gustavo's office, gently closing the door behind him, leaving Gustavo to go back to work.

No matter how much Gustavo yelled at them, no matter how many times they were called dogs, no matter how nasty Gustavo could be…they were going to win the tournament for him.

* * *

**A/N: **Thanks to the anonymous reviewer of the last chapter, I guess I didn't make things clear as I thought. Griffin is suing Gustavo/BTR and Gustavo/BTR is _counter_-suing Griffin for what he's doing, so they all have a lot to lose.

They'll start playing hockey in the next chapter. I'll update again soon. Also chapters after this get longer.

Cheers,

-Riles


	6. Chapter Five

**.:Chapter Five:.**

* * *

Kendall rolled onto his side and cracked his eyes open as the alarm went off. In the bed across the room, Logan made a grunting sound of surprise as he shook at the sound, before pulling his blankets up over his head.

"What time is it?" Logan groaned his voice hoarse from sleep.

Kendall pushed himself up into a half-sitting, half-laying down position and glanced at the clock. "Five o'clock," he replied and then pushed back his covers before climbing out of the bed. "C'mon, if we don't get going now, we're going to be late."

"Ugh, but it's _so_ early." Logan's voice continued from under his comforter.

"But it's 8 on the East Coast and by that, we're late." Kendall insisted. He walked over to Logan's bed and pulled his blankets off of him, causing Logan to make a sound of protest, curling up into a ball. "C'mon, we need to start practicing and you remember that getting to the rink in the morning is the best time to practice." He placed a hand on his hip. "Now, I'm going to wake up James and Carlos and then make sure that the others are getting ready as well."

He started out of the room, but paused in the doorway for a moment before leaving it completely. He walked over to James' and Carlos' shared room, being careful not to wake up his mother and sister, whose snores he could hear from their room. Kendall quietly opened the door to James' and Carlos' room and poked his head in. He made a face when he saw that the two of them were sleeping soundly, snoring as loud as possible.

Kendall slipped into the room and walked over to Carlos' bed. He leaned over his shorter friend and held a hand over his mouth and pinched his nose shut. Carlos' face started to twitch, and then he sat up, slapping Kendall's hand away from his face.

"I _hate _it when you do that." Carlos whined, rubbing drool off of his chin.

"Then you should know by now that when I say that we need to be up at 5, we need to be up at 5." Kendall replied in a low murmur. He watched as Carlos rolled his eyes before picking up his phone to check the time.

"Uh-oh, super strict, Captain Kendall is back." Carlos said teasingly.

Kendall merely smiled before turning to James, who was sleeping on his back, his hair up in a silk scarf. Kendall walked over to his bed and started to shake him on the arm, but that didn't wake him up. Knowing that holding his nose and mouth closed wouldn't work as well, he walked to the end of James' bed, flipped back the covers, and grabbed onto his pinkie toe, twisting it to the side.

"OW!' James cried, sitting up. He pulled his foot back and kicked Kendall in the leg in retaliation. "What'd you do that for?"

"Shh," Kendall moved his fingers to his lips, looking over his shoulder. He waited for a moment and when he didn't hear any movement from the room next door, he turned back to James. "We had to get going now or we won't have enough rink time to get some simple basics done."

"And you couldn't have woken me up _without _murdering my pinkie toes?" James lifted his foot to his face to inspect his toes. He then let out a sigh as he got to his feet, easily towering over Kendall by about four inches. "If I knew that you were going to be this serious this fast, then I would have suggested that we took up a _bowling _tournament."

Kendall blinked once, making a funny face. "I'm bad at bowling."

"Exactly."

Kendall laughed lightly to himself. "I'm just going to use today to see where everyone is. Of course we're going to be better off, but we haven't been practicing as diligently as we used to when we were back home, so we're bound to be rusty at something." He ran a hand through his hair. "I just want to be sure that we're good."

"Kendall, it's a tournament, not the end of our lives." James reminded him gently. He tilted his head to the side and gave Carlos a curious look before turning his attention back to Kendall. "Is something bothering you?"

"No," Kendall shrugged. "Nothing's bothering me. I'm going to get my stuff ready; we should leave in ten minutes." He turned on his heel and went back to his room, hearing Logan in the kitchen, quickly getting his breakfaster together.

Kendall closed the door to his room behind him and went over to his closet to grab his hockey jersey and his hockey gear. Dragging out a large sports bag, he shoved his skates, helmet, gloves, pads, and mouth guard inside before quickly getting dressed. He couldn't help but smile to himself when he packed everything away. He was taking things back to his roots; to the endless times that he spent on the ice, crashing into his opponents and finding different ways to get around the defense to send the puck into a pocket of the net.

_I'd probably enjoy this more if it wasn't for the fact that we were in such a stupid legal battle. _Kendall shook his head. He paused for a moment in his packing, resting his arms on his bag as he zoned out, and thinking about it. No one could guess what the outcome of it was going to be; they could win and Griffin could be so embarrassed that he left Rocque Records, letting Gustavo move into being CEO or they could lose and lose everything. Gustavo would probably be fired and the guys wouldn't have free reign with their music anymore.

Besides, things didn't seem to be worth it if Gustavo wasn't going to be there with them. Not even when he didn't want to support them with this tournament.

"Kendall?"

Kendall turned his head and saw Katie standing in the doorway to his room. "Oh," Kendall stood up, tossing his jersey onto his bed. "Katie, I hope we didn't wake you up."

"You didn't," Katie replied, shaking her head. Kendall took a good look at her, she was dressed in sweats and she had a bag slung over her shoulders. "I want to help you guys out." She said in explanation when she noticed Kendall's stare. "I know that I'm not that good at hockey, but I've seen you guys play enough to probably come up with some new plays or whatever to help you." She jostled her bag. "I have my stuffy ready to go."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Katie." Kendall said truthfully as he pulled off his pajama shirt to change into a t-shirt.

"Why not?" Katie pouted a little, shoving her hands into the front pocket of her sweatshirt. "Oh, I get it," she rolled her eyes. "You're afraid that I'm going to get hurt."

"If that were the case, I wouldn't be forcing Jo to play." Kendall retorted as he bent over to grab his shoes, wallet, and phone. "'Cause she's convinced that her face is going to be knocked in at almost every second of a game. I don't think it's a good idea for you to play, because I think that you would be better as a manager for our team." He turned and gave Katie a warm smile. "Don't jump to conclusions, Baby Sister, you're usually wrong."

Katie walked forward and punched Kendall on the arm as he laughed lightly at her. She studied him for a moment, waiting for him to get everything together before following him out of the room. The two siblings walked into the kitchen where James, Logan, and Carlos were eating their quick bowls of cereal quietly. They gave nods of acknowledgement when they noticed their friends. Katie went over to the table to get a bowl of cereal herself. Kendall walked over to the front door and pulled it open. He grabbed the newspaper and brought it back inside, flipping through the pages until he reached the Sports section.

"What are you doing?" Logan asked, giving him an odd look. "You _never _read the newspaper."

"I'm just checking to see if they covered the tournament yet," Kendall replied as he sat down in an empty chair and spread out the newspaper the best he could without taking up too much space. He rested his chin in his hand. "Just to get a good idea of whom we're going to be up against. I'd rather get the idea of them sooner rather than later so we can play to our strengths."

"What strengths?" Carlos asked. "We have one girl that's afraid of being hit, one girl that doesn't like hockey, five siblings that hate the cold and can't skate, and…the rest of us." His eyes widened at his own pessimism. "Oh, we're doomed."

"Thanks for that boost to our morale, Carlos." Logan dead-panned.

"You're welcome!" Carlos smiled and continued eating his cereal.

"Kendall?" James grabbed Kendall's attention. "Do you really think that we have a chance against any of these people?" He cracked his knuckles. "I'm being completely serious. Carlos has a point when he said that it wouldn't be surprising that we'd lose, especially since the four of us have been playing hockey ever since we could walk. We only have three weeks, do you think that we'll be ready for it."

"We'll be ready for the first game," Kendall agreed. "But for everything else? Not a chance. It really depends on the way that you get eliminated, how many games you have to lose, all that." He waved a hand. "Don't worry about that now, we have to worry about how we're going to practice today, keep your heads in the game."

"Aren't you going to eat?" Katie asked, noticing that her brother was waiting for them.

"I'll eat after our practice is done, I'll be fine." Kendall reassured her as he closed the newspaper, setting it aside. "Hm, I guess we should leave mom a note." He went back to his room and grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen, quickly writing out a note before going back to the kitchen and leaving it in plain sight for her to see. "You guys ready?"

"Born ready." Katie grinned.

* * *

Kendall skated to a stop by the players' bench and lifted his helmet so it rested on the top of his head, pushing his sweat matted hair onto his forehead. He stood by as Stephanie scrolled through her iPod, looking for a song to listen to. He turned and looked back onto the ice, watching as James was trying to help Patrick and Rhuben with something. Jo was standing off to the side, looking like she would rather be anywhere than there. At that point, Kendall didn't mind her bad attitude as ever since she had gotten there, two hours ago, she whined and complained repeatedly about hating hockey and how early it was. But he knew that she was putting forth and effort to help her friends and (for now) it was all that he could ask for.

"Stephanie," Kendall raised his stick and tapped it against the side of the board, causing a loud metallic taping to echo across the rink. Using his free hand, he took off his helmet and set it aside. Stephanie looked up and gave him a bright smile. Kendall smiled back. Even though she wasn't as good as the others, she was picking up the game pretty quickly and wasn't afraid to get a bit physical when needed.

"Hey Kendall," Stephanie greeted him cheerfully.

"Steph, could you get in the zone, please?" Kendall said patiently.

"Uh, hello?" Stephanie lifted her iPod; the headphones nestled gently in her ears. "I'm listening to Whiz Khalifa; I'm already _in _the zone."

Kendall looked at her for moment before pointing off to the side. "On the ice, Steph."

Stephanie gave a thumbs up and put her iPod aside before grabbing a hockey stick and getting out onto the ice. Kendall grabbed a hockey puck and followed her. E stopped at the center of the rink and waved his arms so everyone could gather around him.

"So what we're going to do is a quick scrimmage," he explained. "Logan and I will lead one side and James and Carlos the other so it's not too fair for the rest of you. After having gone over some of the basics, I just want to see where you all are, before I figure out what to help you guys focus on to get better."

"Any ideas of what we need to improve on yet?" Sydney asked, as earnest as always. "It might only be as simple as foot placement and it wouldn't be that hard to fix."

"That's what my assessment is for, Syd." Kendall said patiently.

"Ok, well, is this going to be like a real game where we can get hit?" Camille's anxiety was evident in her voice. "'Cause I'm still trying to get used to people coming at me at full speed." She twisted her hockey stick in her hands. It fell out of her grasp and clattered to the ice, where she had trouble picking it back up against with her gloved hands.

"Don't worry 'Mille, no one's going to go that fast." Riley said as she picked up the stick for her friend and handed it over.

"She's right," James agreed. "I just want you guys to focus on face-offs and how you take shots on the goal." He rolled his neck. "The key thing that you want to remember is don't pick your stick up too high, or you'll lose your balance on the downswing."

"So, can we get started?" Patrick asked, his eyes flashing with excitement.

"Yeah, sure thing," Kendall skated backwards a few steps. "Uh, how about you and Noah do the face off then?" He suggested before skating back over to the players bench to get his helmet and mouth guard. "What do you think?" He asked Katie, who was sitting patiently on the player's bench. "Do you think we have a shot?"

"At this point," Katie hesitated for a moment. "You have a better chance of a pig flying, but in three weeks, I think you'll get there." She added encouragingly. "Don't get too stressed, Big Bro, it isn't possible for them to get worse, they can only get better." She tilted her head back and looked up at him. "Especially since you're the captain."

Kendall leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks Baby Sister, I'll score a goal for you." He put his mouth guard in and then pulled his helmet onto his head.

"Not that that'll be too difficult." Katie called after him.

Kendall smirked and slid into place to play as a quick referee. He made sure that Patrick and Noah were in place before lifting his arm, dropping a puck onto the ice. He moved back into place, holding tightly onto his stick as Patrick and Noah started the face-off.

_Crash, clack! Crash, clack!_

Their sticks came together and hit the ice, vying for control of the little black puck that sat innocently on the ground.

_Crash, clack!_

_Smack!_

With a forceful hit from Noah, it went flying up the ice towards the goal.

"Get it, Camille!" Katie called encouragingly from the bench, as the wavy haired girl was closer to it. With some effort, Camille managed to get the puck and tried to hit it back up the ice. After missing once, she gets it the second time, and the black sphere rolls complacently back down the ice.

"Nice job, Camille," Carlos gave her an encouraging smile. "You didn't give up."

Camille beamed with pride.

"New face-off?" Riley asked, placing her stick on the ice to hold her up. "So we can each get a try?"

"Yeah," Kendall nodded. "That's a good idea." He stopped the puck and moved back to the center of the rink, allowing Rhuben and Jo to try it this time.

"One…two…three!" On each number, they bring the sticks up to meet above the puck and then compete for it. Rhuben managed to whack it out of Jo's control and then took it down the ice towards the opposite goal, where Logan stood patiently waiting with his oversized stick in front of the goal.

James quickly came up on Rhuben's other side and then moved in front of her, skating backwards so he would make her shot a bit more difficult. Straining to keep the ball in control, Rhuben took a swing at it with her stick and by luck, the ball shot by Logan into the goal. Logan picked it up and tossed it back up the ice as James and Rhuben both made their way back to the face-off circle.

"Next goal's first intermission," Kendall said as he wiped sweat from his face. He used his stick to grab the puck and placed it in the center of the face-off circle. "Alright, to make it a bit more difficult, I'm gonna face off against you guys, and you'll need to try your hardest to get the puck away from me." He scanned the ice for a bit. "Syd, you can go first." The small boy nodded and moved across from Kendall.

They placed their sticks in position.

"One…two…three!"

* * *

Mrs. Knight looked up from the newspaper, a steaming mug of coffee in her right hand as there was a knock at the door. She let out a short sigh, her peace being disrupted and contemplated whether or not she should open the door. If it was Gustavo, the door would have been beaten to the ground at that point, if it was Kelly, it would have been a few brisk knocks.

If it was Bitters he would have already come in.

Mrs. Knight held still, slowly moving her coffee to her mouth again. Maybe if she didn't make any sound, they would go away?

There was another knock on the door, so patient that she knew that whoever was on the other side wasn't going to go away anytime soon.

Mrs. Knight set her coffee mug down before pulling herself from her seat, walking towards the front door, her slippers sliding across the ground. She reached a hand up to the back of her head, making sure that her messy bun was still in place before pressing against the door and looking through the peephole.

Her mouth dropped open as a light gasp escaped her lips.

She took a step back, slowly reaching out to grab the doorknob. She swallowed thickly and inch-by-inch opened the door to face the person that she thought that she would never see again…

* * *

**A/N: **I don't know why my chapters continue to be so short, I'm working on making them longer. Some of the Kendall angst is starting to show in this chapter, I hope that you guys liked it and I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	7. Chapter Six

**.:Chapter Six:.**

* * *

"Kevin…what are you doing here?" Mrs. Knight asked as she looked up at her ex-husband. He shuffled his feet for a moment, looking over his shoulder down the hallway as if looking for someone. Or maybe, trying to _avoid_ someone.

At least he had the grace to be nervous.

Especially after everything he had put her family through.

"Look, we need to talk," Mr. Knight said, running a hand through his hair. Mrs. Knight opened her mouth to turn him down and he took a step forward, closing in on her personal space, causing her to close her mouth and instinctively take a step back. "I took a red-eye out from Minnesota; just to talk to you, please, give me the chance."

Mrs. Knight sighed and looked at her watch. Kendall and the others would be home soon. She didn't even know what she would do if they had gotten back and he was still there. She wouldn't know how any of them would react. Katie would probably fall back into that 'Daddy's Little Girl' relationship that the two of them used to have, but Kendall. She knew that for him it wouldn't be easy. He'd be angry and downright pissed that his father was sitting there; he'd probably attack him, she wouldn't put it past him.

"Please," Kevin gave her a pleading look and she had to let him in.

A man didn't give you a pleading look, taking down all of his defenses, if he wasn't being completely serious about it. He was a man, for god's sake; the kind of human being that was socially shunned if they showed even the slightest bit of an emotion that wasn't strong and overly masculine.

"Fine," Mrs. Knight took a step back. "Come in, but make it fast, the kids are going to be back soon." She closed the door behind him, but not before checking the hall for anyone that could recognize him. If anyone was going to tell Kendall and Katie that their father came by, it was going to be her and no one else.

"Don't worry; I'll try to make this as quick and straight forward as possible." Kevin gave a small smile, his green eyes boring into Mrs. Knight's own hazel ones.

In that brief moment, Mrs. Knight thought back to how the two of them met. She had moved from her home in Roanoke, Virginia to go to university and start a new life in St. Paul, Minnesota. She had her whole career and future life up to her wedding planned out. But she didn't know that it was going to be completely derailed by the time she met him.

She was walking to the bus stop to get back to her dorm. Being the kind of student that studied hard in between the times she was doing ballet or playing the piano, she was walking down the street, her nose stuck in a book. Unfortunately, as she was so engrossed in a book, she wasn't paying attention to where she was going. Minnesota is notorious for its snow and slush, and while she wasn't paying attention, she stepped on a patch of ice and slipped. She smacked into something solid and cried out when she fell on top of the solid thing. Her book went flying from her hands and she looked up and saw that the solid thing was actually a human body.

A very large human body.

grunted and she tried to help herself up, she slipped and her knee smacked down in between his legs, causing her to wince as she heard a cry of pain.

Mrs. Knight quickly jumped up and kneeled by the man's head, a look of apprehension on her face. She pushed her auburn hair out of her eyes and peered over the man, her eyes darting back and forth frantically. "Are you okay?" she asked, looking to see if there was any blood. She had hit him pretty hard and hoped that he didn't hit his head on the ground or fall at an odd angle.

"Uh," The man's eyes fluttered for a moment before he grimaced once more, bringing his hands over his face. "Yeah" he finally replied, his lashes fluttering once more. "Yeah, I'm good."

"I'm really sorry," Mrs. Knight pulled her hair from her face once more as she lifted her head, looking around. Maybe someone could help them, there had to be a doctor nearby, or maybe they could duck into a store to assess the damages. "I should have been looking where I was going" She apologized.

"It's okay," The man said as he ran a hand over his face once more. It was starting to snow; the small white flakes danced down from the sky, lightly landing on his face. "Really, I'm good."

Mrs. Knight bit her lower lip; she wasn't sure what she could say and do to make it up to him. It was ironic, really, that she had knocked him over. She was a dancer; she should be able to walk around gracefully _despite_the ice and the slush. She reached her hand out to help him to his feet. He accepted it, and smiled at her weekly, obviously still in a lot of pain.

"Okay, let me take you to my dorm room or something," She offered once the two of them were on their feet. She hovered by his side, holding a hand out in case one of them fell once more. "You should rest and maybe get some ice. Did you hit your head?"

"I did," He rubbed the back of his head, his eyes squeezing shut as his fingers grazed over a bump, sending pain flashing through his head. "But no," he gingerly shook his head, shaking the offer away. "I couldn't"

"It's just a quick bus ride away" she said, quickly. "Please? I would feel much better if you would let me help you"

The man sighed and lowered his head, he raised it back up again and flashed her a weak grin, "Alright, it seems that you're not going to take 'no' for an answer. Let's go." Mrs. Knight smiled and offered her arm to help the man walk. He stopped, and bent down to pick something up. He looked over the cover for a second before turning and handing it back to her. "Your book?"

"Oh yes, thank you" Mrs. Knight smiled and took the book back from him and the two walked slowly over o the bus stop. Once the bus came, they got on and went to her dorm room in silence. Once they got off the bus at their stop, they went inside and Mrs. Knight helped the man into the elevator, she pushed the button and it started to move.

"I just realized I never got your name," The man said, suddenly, getting her attention.

"Uh, it's Kacy" Mrs. Knight replied after a minute. She gave him a smile. "And what about you? What's your name?"

"Kevin. Pleased to meet you."

Mrs. Knight let out a sigh as she brought herself back to the present. Her ex-husband was standing in front of her _now_ wanting to talk to her about something important. If it wasn't important, she wouldn't have heard from him. She didn't really put up a fuss with the fact that he hadn't been sending any child support, at this point, she technically didn't need it, but it was the principle of the matter. If he didn't send any child support, he obviously didn't care about his kids, so why would he want to drop by now.

"I'm pretty busy, Kevin, if you could make this quick, I'd be obliged." Mrs. Knight gave a tight-lipped smile. Kevin gave her a look and then took another breath. Obviously he knew that she was trying to get rid of him, he would be an idiot not to get that.

"I want to be a part of your guys' life again." Kevin blurted out.

Mrs. Knight blinked. She must have heard wrong. He _couldn't_ have said that he wanted to be part of their lives again. The idea was just so ludicrous. He had left them _years_ ago, she couldn't even remember the last time that he had contacted them to say 'Happy Birthday' or 'Merry Christmas' or ask how they were doing now that Big Time Rush was getting big. She hadn't heard a word from him in _years_ and now he thinks that she would jump at the chance to take him back?

Well, he had another thing coming.

"I know that you don't think that I deserve to suddenly jump right back into it," Kevin said, as if he could read her thoughts. Mrs. Knight scowled a little, clearly even though they were separated, he was still able to read her mind like an open book. "But I really want to make this work. I realized recently that I've made a HUGE mistake, taking my family for granted like I did and acting selfishly. I can't help but think that Kendall and Katie both hate me."

"I wouldn't put it past them." Mrs. Knight agreed with a bit more bite than she intended. She mentally smiled when she saw the pain flash through his eyes. Good, now he was beginning to know how she was feeling.

"I know you're angry too." Kevin continued.

"You think I wouldn't be?" Mrs. Knight asked calmly, crossing her arms over the front of her plush robe. "My husband left me with no good reason for it, and I've had to explain to Kendall and Katie over and over again that you weren't coming back. _On top of that_ I had to work over-time as a waitress with crummy pay as Kendall started working early at Sherwood's, just to be sure that we were able to keep our heads above water because, well, you haven't been paying child support."

"I know," Kevin licked his lips. "I'm sorry about that too."

"Sorry isn't going to change everything that you've done," Mrs. Knight shook her head before reaching up with her delicate hands and rubbing her temples. Her head was starting to throb mercilessly. "Look, we're not going to get anything done today, you told me what you wanted to tell me, and I've listened." She walked back over to the front door. "Now, please, just go."

"Are you going to tell Kendall and Katie that I was here?" Kevin asked as he slowly walked over to the door, trying to stall for time.

"I haven't decided yet," Mrs. Knight said as she made a sweeping gesture towards the hallway. "I don't know if it would help or not." She continued to wave her hand as Kevin inched out the front door. "Really, Kevin-"

"I know you don't believe me, but I _really _want things to work out for us." Kevin interrupted. "For _all_ of us." He looked at his watch. "I have to go check out of the hotel and catch my flight back home, but I'll be in touch." Kevin didn't give her the grace of a wave or a parting word before he disappeared around the corner.

She could hear the elevator doors 'ding' open before she closed the door behind him.

Mrs. Knight had a bad feeling when she woke up that morning. And if she knew ahead of time that that bad feeling was going to manifest itself in the fact that her ex-husband was visiting her, she would have bolted the door shut.

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**A/N: **Still don't know why my chapters are kinda short, but the next one will definitely be longer.I decided to try the 'flashback' style I had for Live _and Let Live, Live and Let Die, and Live and Love _in this. Let me know what you think. Sorry for the wait.

Also, to those that I know that are going to say it WE KNOW MRS. KNIGHT'S NAME IS JENNIFER! We just choose to make her name Kacy to go along with the 'K' theme of Kendall's actual family. Geez, we're Rushers, not idiots!

Sorry, that just needed to be said because we get many people telling us that, even if we have a big author's note/disclaimer on our fics saying it. People feel the need to point it out when we already know.

Cheers,

-Riles


	8. Chapter Seven

**.:Chapter Seven:.**

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"Kendall, can we go home now?" Katie stuffed her hands under her thighs, her legs bouncing up and down rapidly. Kendall continued to skate back and forth across the ice, stopping every now and then and turning and blasting back the way he came. "Everyone else left an hour ago!"

Kendall glided over to where she was sitting in the stands and stopped sharply, sending a bit of slush in her direction. "You could have gone with them." He reminded her.

"I was waiting for you," Katie replied with a slight pout. "You said that you would only be a few minutes." She looked at her watch. "And you said that two _hours_ ago." She crossed her arms over her chest. "I know that hockey is important to you, Big Brother, but I don't want you to over-work yourself."

"I'm not going to overwork myself," Kendall shook his head, spitting his mouth guard into his gloved hand. "I'm just working on a few plays."

"Kendall," Katie said slowly. "It's _just _a hockey tournament. It's not going to kill you if you don't win."

"Yes it will," Kendall replied shortly.

He shook his head. Katie didn't get it. No one really got it. To him, hockey wasn't just his favorite sport, it wasn't something that he liked to do in his spare time, it was his _life. _He had to watch every game, every highlight, and every repeat on ESPN. He had to know what was going on with the teams, who were going to go for the Stanley Cup. It didn't just keep him holding onto his roots back home in St. Paul, Minnesota; it also, in a way, kept him tied to the life that he knew before it all fell apart. Before he was on his own with his mother and sister, and before they had gone out to LA to try and make it big.

_And end up getting screwed over in the last minute. _Anger flashed through Kendall's eyes, Katie couldn't help but notice it. She could always tell when he was angry, fist his eyes would flash, he'd snap at someone the next time they talked, and then his jaw would poke out in defiance.

Even if someone was going to ask him a question, you had to beware.

Katie shook her head as she watched Kendall go back out onto the ice. She knew what it was about, even if he never directly told her. She knew that it was their father that had taught Kendall how to play hockey, and the only reason he had such a tight rein on it was to, in a way, stay close to him.

She knew it.

She knew that Kendall knew it.

But she knew that he would never admit it out loud or to himself.

Part of Kendall wanted to blame his dad for everything. He couldn't even really call him his father. He was never around anyway; he was practically dead to them. When Kendall turned sixteen; do you think he called? Sent a card? Wrote an e-mail? Any kind of birthday acknowledgment? Nope.

Does he care? Yeah. He did.

_He's supposed to be my fucking dad, no matter how much I hate him. I'm not saying I wanted him to call... I'm just saying I'm hurt that he didn't. He's my fucking dad for crying out loud. Oh well, I'm done caring. Why should I care about him when he obviously doesn't care about me? It doesn't seem fair._

Kendall shook his head as he scooped up the puck with his stick and charged towards the goal. Each push off of the ice was like the bottom of his skate slicing through his father's memory. If the memory wasn't there, his father wasn't there.

_Everything in my life has fallen apart since he left. __Everything. __Now I've dragged my friends into my problem, if we hadn't had started Big Time Rush, if I hadn't wanted to get James to the audition so badly, none of this would have happened. _

Life screws us all. Some more than others. Isn't it amazing? How someone you hate so much can make you hurt so badly without even trying.

How did he end up with such an insensitive prick for a father?

Kendall wished he knew...

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**A/N: **I had to do a bit of a brother-sister bonding in this chapter, I couldn't for the wait on an update, I've been busy these past couple of days. What would you guys like to see in this story? I'm willing to take your guys' ideas. Thanks for the reviews, favorites, and alerts so far. I couldn't really think of anything besides filler, before I got to the next part, so here you go.

Cheers,

-Riles


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